History of the New World a'la Book of Mormon

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Visiting with a Mormon fellow after the wedding today and he volunteered that lots of new evidence was coming out about pre-Columbian civilizations in America that were NOT "Indian", but rather white settlements.

Especially in the Ohio River valley. If I could choose any place to live in the US and develop a civilization, it probably WOULDN'T be there!

After about 20+ mminutes of search I have found some fascinating sites, but nothing directly confirming or denying the 'new' material you have been told about. If you find out more, could you please let me know via PM or email? We are so busy now that I have very little time here, but this subject interests me greatly.

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(In edit: I didn't read the site posted by KenH until after I wrote this, but it is a very worthwhile summary of the archaeological context of 19th century America. It's also a really good example of why the study of 19th century American archaeology is soooo interesting. I have no clue whether the "Spalding Hypotheses" is correct.)

Mormon beliefs about the prehistory of North America are part of a larger set of pseudo-archaeological beliefs that existed in the last century. During that century, most of the Native American cultures had become culturally and technologically impoverished -- in part as a result of European settlement, in part because of factors preceeding European settlement. Armchair archaeologists, and some professional archaeologists, looked at the aboriginal artifacts and structures (e.g. mounds) and concluded that this could not have been accomplished by the Native American cultures they knew. So they developed theories that it must have been outside influence -- Egyptians, Phonecians, the "Lost Tribe of Israel," etc. Also during those times, there was an interest in pseudo-epigraphy, the study of lost rock etchings, etc. Aboriginal markings, glacial scratches, and outright fakes were variously attributed to Phonecians, Celts, Norse, etc.

Part of the foundation of Mormonism lies in these 19th century archaeological ideas. Most of the ideas died out or remained on the finge to this day. Mormonism, however, succeeded for cultural reasons having to do with family, community, etc. that are quite commendable in and of themselves, and do not depend on the foundational history of the sect. The archaeological aspects have continued to be carried along as part of the larger belief system.

Someone who is more knowledgeable about the modern LDS church may know more about this, but I gather that modern LDS scholars are divided about whether those early archaeological ideas are to be taken literally. In other words, some of them may approach the LDS scriptures in the way minimalist Christian archaeologists approach the OT & NT: as a combination of myth, mythologized history, and actual history. Mormon "maximalist" scholars would argue that although Mormanism developed in a rather chaotic archaeological milieu, special revelation to Joseph Smith means that the LDS church got right what the others got wrong. I would say that most of the Mormons I have known as friends would fall into the liberal camp -- the archeaology would be interesting if it were true, but it's not what they base their current faith and practice on.

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Any "evidence" of the vast and highly developed civilizations that the book of Mormon calls for in North America ranks right up there with "evidence" for the existence of the Klingon Empire, for the same reason: both are fictional.

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Brother Dr. Bob, it's not generally well known, but there was a huge (for the time) and flourishing Native American civilization in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys and during the period up to around 1500AD. Its level of organization and building rivaled that of the civilizations of the southestern U.S., Central America, and Mexico. Some scholars believe the population of some cities was larger than that of many European cities of the same time. Cahokia, a large city near modern St. Louis, may have had as many as 40,000 inhabitants c. 1100AD.

Unfortunately for purposes of preservation, the eastern and Ohio Valley cultures tended to build in wood and earth, rather than stone. Although archeaologists know a lot about these cultures, they remain relatively unknown to the public as a whole.

The reasons for the decline are controversial, and may involve climate, agriculture, and human cultural changes. Apparently the decline began before European settlement, but its nadir may have been hastened by the diseases which spread ahead of settlement after very early European contact.

However, mainstream archaeology is quite clear -- these early civilizations were the ancestors of modern Native Americans. There may have been minor European, African, and Asian contact before Columbus, but it left no indisputable evidence outside the Norse contact areas in northeastern North America.

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<b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

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More info: I was here last May & it was very interesting. The people were highly educated.

IN BRIEF
From about 200 BC to AD 500, the Ohio River Valley was a focal point of the prehistoric Hopewell culture. The term Hopewell describes a broad network of beliefs and practices among different Native American groups over a large portion of eastern North America. The culture is characterized by the construction of enclosures made of earthen walls, often built in geometric patterns, and mounds of various shapes. Visible remnants of Hopewell culture are concentrated in the Scioto River valley near present-day Chillicothe, Ohio. The most striking Hopewell sites contain earthworks in the form of squares, circles, and other geometric shapes. Many of these sites were built to a monumental scale, with earthen walls up to 12 feet high outlining geometric figures more than 1000 feet across. Conical and loaf-shaped earthen mounds up to 30 feet high are often found in association with the geometric earthworks.

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